To look at five-year-old Lucas Gutman you wouldn’t know he is living with a congenital heart defect.
His mum Jennifer says he is every bit as active as a typical kid – but the Ohio boy was born with HLHS – hypoplastic left heart syndrome – and became just the second such patient to undergo stem cell injections for the condition.
He was part of a clinical research trial at the Mayo clinic where regenerative therapies for the HLSH are being investigated.
The results are hugely promising and Jennifer says Lucas’ cardiologist wishes she could prescribe stem cells to all her HLHS patients.
Emma was born in Ukraine in 2015 but before her birth her parents were told she had spina bifida.
Spina bifida is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the vertebrae in the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development of pregnancy.
Thanks to one neurosurgeon, Pavel Plavkiy, Emma’s cord blood was collected when she came into the world and very soon after she underwent surgery on her spine which used the cord blood.
Five years on, the only symptoms she suffers is some leg weakness. Her parents credit the use of the cord blood in the surgery for Emma’s progress. You can read her full story here.
This is a cord blood story that is both heart-wrenching and inspirational.
When Frances Everall’s family banked her cord blood with CordBank in 2002, they never dreamed it would be needed so soon and so dramatically.
But at four years old their daughter was diagnosed with a Stage Four Neuroblastoma (a deadly cancer) at Starship in Auckland. One of the options her family was given was to take her home to die. But armed with Frances’ own cord blood they fought back – and won.
A simple infusion of her own cord blood rebuilt her immune system after the rigorous cancer treatment and restored her to health. Today Frances is happy and energetic – with her cancer in full remission.
Frances Verter gave up a career at NASA to dedicate her life to telling expectant parents about the importance of cord blood banking.
When her daughter Shai was born, Frances did not know cord blood banking was an option and had no idea of how life-changing these stem cells could have been. Tragically Shai was diagnosed with cancer as a toddler and died the day she was due to start school.
“I didn’t know saving her cord blood stem cells was an option when Shai was born, and I know they would have saved her.” said Frances.
“Too many expectant parents are still not aware of the benefits of saving cord blood for the future. When you’re having a baby it’s so easy to focus on what colour to paint the baby’s room and which pram to buy rather than stopping to think about the benefits of saving your child’s cord blood stem cells for the future.”
“My deepest wish is that expectant parents will come to understand how the millions of unique cord blood stem cells in your child’s cord blood could save your child’s life if you’ve banked them at birth”.
Maia Friedlander was the first NZ child to be successfully treated with her own cord blood after suffering brain damage at birth.
Thankfully her parents, Jillian and Daniel, had this option because they had saved Maia’s cord blood stem cells with CordBank at her birth. These precious stem cells were re-infused when Maia was four years old and the results were life changing for her and her family.
Maia’s parents have a simple message for all expectant parents:
“You never know what can happen at your child’s birth or in their lives. But when you have their cord blood stored you have options.
Bank your baby’s cord blood with CordBank. You only get one chance and it’s a decision you’ll never regret.”
Scientists in London have developed a blood test which can detect which babies deprived of oxygen at birth are at risk of serious disabilities.
The Imperial College team working with groups in India, Italy and the USA say the prototype test looks for certain genes being switched on and off that are linked to long term neurological issues such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
The research was carried out in Indian hospitals, where there are around 0.5-1.0 million cases of birth asphyxia (oxygen deprivation) per year.
Babies can suffer oxygen deprivation at birth for a number of reasons, including when the mother has too little oxygen in her blood, infection, or through complications with the umbilical cord during birth.
A clinical trial, using cord blood, lithium and physical therapy to treat the most severe forms of spinal cord injury has been given the green light from the FDA.
The experimental treatment does not cure paralysis but is the first to help people with complete chronic spinal cord injuries to regain some ability to walk.
It includes doses of umbilical cord mononuclear blood stem cells and lithium, coupled with intensive physical therapy, which stimulates severed spinal cord nerve fibres to regenerate.
The treatment was first tested in a trial led by Dr Wise Young, the founding director of the Keck Center and the Richard H. Shindell Chair in Neuroscience at Rutgers.
Held between 2009-2014 in Hong Kong and China, the results showed that 15 of 20 participants walked with a wheeled walking frame and 60 percent recovered some bowel and bladder control.
“We don’t have a cure but a very promising and unprecedented therapy,” said Wise Young,
“We aren’t returning people back to their pre-injury state, but this is the first therapy to restore significant function in these patients.”
The study appeared in the journal Cell Transplantation in 2016.
Researchers are piloting the use of an umbilical cord blood therapy to help Covid patients battling pneumonia.
The trial team at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne is currently working with confirmed Covid patients who have moderate to severe pneumonia, until the end of the year.
They are trying to find out if the cord blood therapy can stop the Covid induced pneumonia progressing to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
ARDS is one of the key causes of fatalities among Covid sufferers.
Although Leyla’s brain injury was diagnosed before she was born, no-one told her parents about cord blood banking.
But when her baby sister Ela was born in 2018, they not only collected her cord blood but also enrolled in a new trial at Duke University Medical Centre – using sibling cord blood for brain injury.
The therapy is offered for children with various brain disorders under a new FDA-approved Expanded Access Program.
Nine months after the treatment, Leyla’s parents say they’ve seen significant improvements in her speech and energy levels.
“Before the infusion, she couldn’t make sentences and now she’s saying a different word every single day,” Romanska said. “She’s putting three-word phrases together; her speech therapists are amazed.”
Her mother also revealed she’s seen a dramatic increase in Leyla’s energy levels. Before treatment, she would easily fatigue after 15 to 20 minutes of doing simple tasks like going for a walk to the park or grocery shopping.
“I’m shocked. Leyla is like a typical child now,” Romanska said. “She can go from our house to the park and she’s full of energy, full of smiles. I’m just blown away with how the cord blood has helped with that.”